Little pins, fat fingers, what to do

[johndxmurphy]

I'm having a great deal of trouble soldering to the pins on the IC socket, 8 pins or whatever. If the pins were a little longer that would help. I'm using reallly thin solder and that helps, but it is so hard to see those things. Any suggestions on soldering to the pins on the socket?

Thanks in advance.

 

[BeanieBots]

It just takes practice. If you have difficulty with your eyesight, then try using a "third hand" magnifier.
My eyesight has significantly deteriorated with age but I can still make a good solder joint by "feel".

 

[Michael 2727]

$2 Shop reading glasses are great for soldering when your eyes
become old and weary like mine, sometimes I even use 2x pairs at once

 

[westaust55]

Little pins

As others say, a magnifying glass and means of clamping the work may be the way to go.

Then who says being myopic is all bad. Rumour has it that us myopic types (that's me ) find that for a period in mid/later-life we can in fact see the small things better as the eyesight varies thru myopic to better on the way to really bad.

I must (luckily for now) be in that mid life state as at the moment as I have been soldering SOIC8 (small outline 8 pin IC's) surface mount chips to adapters with a standard soldering iron without problems. I first tin the IC leads and the board, carefully place the IC then reheat each pin to make the bond/conenction.

Mind you I do need a magnifying glass to read the text on this small chips.

 

[hippy]

Soldering in decent light always helps. An anglepoise lamp can be useful for directing light in such a way that it can highlight or backlight what you're soldering to make things clearer. The larger third-hand magnifying lenses often have in-built lighting which helps.

 

[premelec]

Let's not overlook the obvious - a very pointy heat controlled soldering iron and very skinny resin core solder... and when you make a solder bridge by mistake chase the liquid solder apart with a wooden toothpick!

 

[Andrew Cowan]

Thin solder is needed more than a thin iron - I use the same iron for normal and SMD soldering, but I use 0.8mm solder for normal work, and 0.2mm solder for SMD.

Andrew

 

[manuka]

Agreed-I too have been a life long myoptic, but the optical benefits are such that individual electrons can almost be wrangled, providing my coffee levels are modest.

But-at a more practical level- those "helping hands" are THE solution to endless intricate assembly woes. I've used these for years with the impatient "all brain & no dexterity" types who've blessed my educational career, & praise has been universal.

Of course you could always use solder-less breadboards.

 

[davidwf]

Maplin Electronics (among others) sell an excellent illuminated magnifier at a reasonable price (about £30).....I've been peering through one for years and they are excellent as you work without shadow.

 

[boriz]

I use one of those David.

I also use a slightly non-standard soldering technique that works well for me and might be useful for you: I use a matchstick to apply a little dab of plumbers flux to the pin/pad, then I ‘load’ the iron tip with a blob of solder and bring that to the work. The solder is literally sucked off the iron onto the work. I usually do it twice: Tin the pad/track, tin the wire, then bring them together and fetch another blob of solder on the iron. This method requires only a very short time of contact with the iron and prevents iron related overheating problems. It also means I can hold the work instead of holding the solder.

 

[moxhamj]

Check out the Big Train "Fat hands" sketches. Poor chap - people kept giving him presents like calculators with tiny buttons. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQyxGTjZi2I The problem may be the technology, not the fingers!

Are these chips surface mount?

I can't solder surface mount. Well, I can but it is a huge amount of work. I've made a deliberate decision to only use standard sized chips - even though the boards end up bigger. Soldering is much easier. Pop in 10 sockets, put a flat board on top of the sockets, flip the whole thing over so the sockets don't fall out, then solder them all. If the board has a solder mask it makes things very easy. An 8 pin chip will take about 5 seconds. Much faster than surface mount. Bright desk lamp (use a compact flourescent - they don't get as hot and you can get the light really close to the work). Glasses. Magnifier. No coffee.

 

[westaust55]

The problem may be the technology, not the fingers!

Are these chips surface mount?

I can't solder surface mount. Well, I can but it is a huge amount of work. I've made a deliberate decision to only use standard sized chips - even though the boards end up bigger. Soldering is much easier.

Dr Aucla,

I totally agree that the “full/standard sized” DIP chips and their related sockets are far easier to deal with for soldering at the hobby level. Space is usually not a problem for me.

But, like others, I am finding a few chips such as the DS1338 RTC and now the Ramtron F-Ram’s that are only available in the surface mount SOIC outline. Using the SOIC to DIP adapter boards, and those I have bought are very compact, I can plug them into a standard DIP sockets.

 

[moxhamj]

Westaust, are these solder sockets or sockets that the SOIC chip fits into? I looked into sockets a few years back but the sockets were a lot more than the chip. If they have come down in price, they could be a very attractive proposition.

 

[jpyle1]

Maginfier

I have been using this for some years now, and as hippy says, LOTS of light. The best part is the price---US$4.95 and worth every penny. Very good comstruction--maybe not professional quality, but still very good. I have used the same set daily for a couple of years with no failures. (Got a spare still in the package) Although it does not make your fingers any smaller. John


http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/HD-MAG/HEAD-MOUNTED-MAGNIFIER/-/1.html

 

[westaust55]

Westaust, are these solder sockets or sockets that the SOIC chip fits into? I looked into sockets a few years back but the sockets were a lot more than the chip. If they have come down in price, they could be a very attractive proposition.

Hi Dr,

Sorry not SOIC type sockets.

I solder the SOIC8 chips onto a small double-sided plated-thru-hole adapter board which has the area of an 8-pin DIP chip. then solder in 8 header pins.

This configuration will then insert into a "standard" DIP type socket.

the SOIC8 to DIP8 adapters (see attached) are very compact and I bought a small quantity off E-bay couple of months back at about $0.50 each